By: Laura Soukkavong
Queens, NY – In 1992, reports state that police found Nadine Slade, a 15-year-old who was strangled with a bra tightly wrapped around her neck, being secured with a can opener in the bathroom of her apartment in Far Rockaway, which was shared with her mother. The case has been solved, and the suspect has been sentenced.
In 2022, the Queens DA’s Cold Case Unit and the NYPD Cold Case Squad asked for additional DNA analysis of material preserved from beneath the victim’s fingernails. That testing later produced a profile that matched Jerry Lewis, a 60-year-old convicted sex offender from Shawsville, VA, linking him to the murder.
Lewis was interviewed in March 2023 and later arrested after DNA results were confirmed.
Following a two-week trial in Queens Supreme Court before Justice Kenneth Holder, Lewis was found guilty of second-degree murder and was sentenced to 25 years to life in prison.
This case was prosecuted by Assistant District Attorneys Karen L. Ross and Jennie Evanelista, under the supervision of John Kosinski and Executive Assistant District Attorney Shawn Clark.